I Was Hoping To Avoid This A Little Longer...

I hated going to school as a kid. Many, many reasons why but mostly because I had very few friends. No, no need to feel sorry for me. It was what it was and as an adult, I'm totally ok with it. As a kid, not so much. I think part of the reason I had few friends was because in many respects, I just didn't fit in:

I wasn't the right ethnicity...dontcha know that there are several shades of "white"? Apparently a little bit of olive in your complexion and you're not "white enough". I wore severely outdated hand-me-downs from people I didn't even know. A black garbage bag of stuff would arrive home, my mom would riffle through it and choose stuff that she figured would fit us and get us through the latest growth spurt--both vertical, and unfortunately, in my case, horizonal :blush: We never had the latest fad games, toys or video games either.

My parents were your typical immigrant blue-collar workers. I'm nothing but proud of their accomplishments and their reliance on nothing but their Calabrezze stubborness that got all of us through some pretty lean times. I've mentioned many a time that my dad was laid-off a lot during the 80s. It was never a given that we'd have a pay check coming in so we lived very frugally.

Now, I tend to live fairly frugally as well. I certainly have my little luxuries, but we certainly don't spend like the Rockafellers (although my mother-in-law did once claim we dressed Maddy as if we were the Rockafellers! LOL! I got her outfits for pretty inexpensive amount of money...besides, she was my first baby and a girl. I just couldn't resist sometimes!). We splurge on things we think are important: life insurance, some electronics (thanks to my lovely husband; he wants more, but we've put the kibosh on that for the moment), our home and tuition for Catholic school.

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day. Maddy had a dress-down day. She got to wear her jeans and a green shirt I picked up a Target. Her jeans are hand-me-downs from her 14 year old cousin. She loves these jeans. Adores them even though they are too long for her. Thankfully they're not too bad when she wears shoes, but sans shoes, she'd be tripping all over the place. She came home to tell me that she doesn't dress as well as some of the other girls; namely "S".

Darnit! I was hoping this wasn't going to happen for a while. While I have no issue with hand-me-downs, I have a feeling eventually, Maddy won't find them so attractive anymore. I worry that Target brands will no longer be acceptable to her. I worry that she'll be ostracized like I was when I was at school. That is a terrible feeling; trust me.

Part of the reason we chose a Catholic school for our children was the uniform. I like the idea of knowing exactly what they have to wear on what day. I like knowing that, for the most part, it's hard to tell which shirt was bought at J.Crew and which was snagged at the Uniform Sale held by the school in the Spring.

She's starting to notice that some kids have more than her. She certainly doesn't go without, but she doesn't have all the gadgets most of her friends do. She doesn't have a DSLite. Nor do I intend to get her one. She doesn't own Ugg boots or wear Northface jackets/fleece. She doesn't play Wii because we don't own one (I seriously hate video games, but I feel like I may cave to this request because the Wii actually sounds kinda cool!).

She does, however, attend ballet three semesters a year...the class isn't held in the summer. She participates in all the sports she is interested in that are offered through the Rec Department that her classmates also partcipate in. She isn't lacking for food. We dress her in well fitting clothes, but I just can't justify spending big bucks on something she'll outgrow in a season.

I'm really not sure what I'm going to do. I've already caved and said she could get her ears pierced at Easter. I kinda want to give in on the clothes thing, but I'm torn.

Some days I wish parenting were easier...